What can I do to enhance my child’s psychosocial skills before entering kindergarten?
[mme_highlight] Psychosocial skills promote peer acceptance and also harmonious relationships with teachers. Parents can contribute everyday to improve their children psychosocial skills in many ways by encouraging their children to express feelings using words, to share and to interact with peers. [mme_highlight]
Psychosocial skills, such as the capability of understanding emotions and keeping a positive social behavior, promote peer acceptance and also harmonious relationships with teachers. It is a worry for parents when they see that their child shows difficulty in making or keeping close friends or if she/he is teased or even rejected by peers in school. However, parents can also help their children improve such skills with simple and funny activities.
Why are psychosocial skills so important?
At school entry, learning engagement as a whole is reflected the capacity of a child to listen, follow rules and directions, as well as in the determination to do tasks. And this engagement and skills are closely related to social-emotional competence and to positive peer and teacher relationships in the classroom too.
An overall positive learning from the beginning engagement influences dramatically future academic success of a child. Ladd et al. found that higher levels of social participation and learning engagement at the beginning of kindergarten predicted better performance in tests at the end of the school year.
On the opposite, preschool children who tend to show oppositional or aggressive coping behaviors at home often also show such behavior when they enter school, which can lead first to rejection by peers and teachers and then to a negative cycle of social and academic failure.
Some studies have reported that approximately 20% of preschool children in the general population show moderate to clinically significant levels of emotional and behavioral problems. Nevertheless, studies also have found that under optimal circumstances, social skills training has been effective in improving popularity of children who were initially among the lowest regarding peer acceptance in their classroom.
What have social skills training programs proved?
The Head Start REDI study enrolled a total of 356 4-year-old children in an intervention group. Some of the main results are shown below. The investigation of correlations among study variables revealed that growth in emotion understanding and competent social problem solving was significantly associated with growth in positive social behavior.
Of note, growth in emergent literacy skills was significantly associated with growth in emotion understanding and competent social problem solving.
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Correlations among study variables
- Correlation between emotion understanding and emergent literacy skills: 18; p < 0.001 (statistically significant)
- Correlation between competent social problem solving and emergent literacy skills: 14; p < 0.01 (statistically significant)
- Correlation between competent social problem solving and growth in positive social behavior: 14; p < 0.01 (statistically significant)
- Correlation between emotion understanding and growth in positive social behavior: 14; p < 0.01 (statistically significant)
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A study conducted by Han SS et al. evaluated the post-treatment outcome effects of a classroom-based social skills program for pre-kindergarten children, using a teacher-consultation model. Some of the results are shown below. Teachers rated children in the treatment group as showing significantly greater improvement than children in the control group in terms of their total problems, as well as regarding total social skills, like cooperation, assertion and self-control.
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Teacher Ratings of Children’s Behavior Problems and Social Skills
| Pre-intervention | Post-intervention | |
|---|---|---|
| Emotionally reactive | 2.80 | 12.35 |
| Anxious / Depressed | 3.83 | 2.71 |
| Withdrawn | 5.06 | 3.89 |
| Attention problems | 6.81 | 4.88 |
| Aggressive behavior | 12.80 | 11.05 |
| Cooperation | 12.95 | 14.59 |
| Assertion | 9.99 | 12.85 |
| Self-control | 12.35 | 14.13 |
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What can parents do to improve their child’s psychosocial skills?
- Encourage your child to describe feelings using words.
- Practice turn taking in daily life situations.
- Practice following directions, starting with one step directions (e.g. put your shirt in the wardrobe) and progressing to more complex directions.
- Give a positive reinforcement to your child for sharing belongings with other persons.
- Practice sitting quietly at a table to do some work, trying a gradual increase in the amount of time spent.
- Enroll your child in extracurricular activities, which should help in making new friends.
- Invite friends over to the house for a play afternoon, observe children’s interactions and intervene if appropriate and needed.
Summary and Recommendations
- Social skills are crucial for life and absolutely determinant in the academic achievement of a child.
- Some children may show negative social behaviors and difficulty in making friends, while others may be teased by peers or experience peer rejection. Some children may have behavioral problems or diseases, but many can grow up normally if they benefit from specialized help. If you are worried, consult your doctor.
- Studies have shown that interventions regarding social skills have a positive outcome in improving these.
- Parents can contribute everyday to improve their children psychosocial skills in many ways by encouraging their children to express feelings using words, to share and to interact with peers.
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References
- Robert L. Nix , Karen L. Bierman , Celene E. Domitrovich & Sukhdeep Gill (2013) Promoting Children’s Social-Emotional Skills in Preschool Can Enhance Academic and Behavioral Functioning in Kindergarten: Findings From Head Start REDI, Early Education & Development, 24:7,1000-1019.
- Ladd, G. W., Birch, S. H., & Buhs, E. S. (1999). Children’s social and scholastic lives in kindergarten: Related spheres of influence? Child Development, 70, 1373–1400.
- Patterson, G. R., & Stoolmiller, M. (1991). Replications of a dual failure model for boys’ depressed mood. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 59, 491–498.
- Fergusson, D. M., Lynskey, M. T., & Horwood, L. J. (1996). Factors associated with continuity and changes in disruptive behavior patterns between childhood and adolescence. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 24, 533–553.
- Han SS, Catron T, Weiss B, Marciel KK. A teacher-consultation approach to social skills training for pre-kindergarten children: treatment model and short-term outcome effects. J Abnorm Child Psychol. 2005 Dec;33(6):681-93.
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